1st Allusion: Metallica-Creeping Death

     Anyone that knows me well enough can tell I am a huge fan of heavy metal and all its sub-genres.  One of the most influential bands across the spectrum are the trash legends Metallica!  Their song "Creeping Death," from the album Ride the Lightning, is an allusion to the story of the Hebrews in Egypt told in Exodus in the Old Testament of the Bible.  More specifically, it tells of the plagues God sends to the Egyptians as a result of the pharaoh's refusal to release the Israelites.

     According to the band, former bassist Cliff Burton (R.I.P.) uttered the words "Whoah, it's like creeping death," after the scene in which all of Egypt's firstborn are killed in the movie The Ten Commandments.  The band liked the sound of "creeping death" so they set out to write a song based around it and the plagues.

     The song starts by telling of the 400 years of Hebrew servitude to the pharaoh, in the first verse.  Then, the chorus sets the darker tone that is continued throughout the song:

So let it be written
So let it be done
I'm sent here by the chosen one
So let it be written
So let it be done
To kill the first born pharaoh's son
I'm creeping death

The reference here is to the tenth, and final, plague from Exodus 12:

 ²⁹ At midnight the Lord struck down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the firstborn of the captive who was in the dungeon, and all the firstborn of the livestock. ³⁰ And Pharaoh rose up in the night, he and all his servants and all the Egyptians. And there was a great cry in Egypt, for there was not a house where someone was not dead.

The second verse of the song refers to three (out of 10) of the other plagues sent by the Lord to Egypt:

Now

Let my people go, Land of Goshen

Go

I will be with thee, bush of fire

Blood

Running red and strong down the Nile

Plague

Darkness three days long, hail to fire

     The first plague mentioned is the turning of the water of the Nile River to blood, which is the first plague (Exodus 7:20).  Next is the ninth plague, three days of darkness (Exodus 10:22).  Finally, singer James Hetfield screams "Hail to Fire," which is an allusion to the seventh plague of hail (Exodus 9:23).  Also of note is the reference to the protagonist, God, speaking to Moses through the form of a burning bush (Exodus 3). 

Later in the song they even allude to the Passover:

I
Creep the steps and floor, final darkness
Blood
Lamb blood painted door, I shall pass

     Exodus 12 explains the process for assuring one's household is passed over during the killing of the firstborn sons of Egypt.  This includes painting the doorposts and lintels of the houses of the people of Israel with the blood of an unblemished lamb.  

     Heavy metal is full of biblical allusions, most of which refer to the apocalypse, but there are many others.  Other religions and classical literature of often referred to as well.  Led Zeppelin uses stories from Norse mythology and even the writings of J.R.R. Tolkien several times.  Manowar released an album called Gods of War dedicated to the Greek gods.  Metallica, in the same album the song discussed above comes from, has a song called "Call of Ktulu" which is a nod to the story by H.P. Lovecraft.  You'd be surprised to see where the "scariest" form of music has drawn inspiration for its lyrics.

Who is Molech?

Amidst the list of unlawful sexual relations there is a seemingly misplaced warning against the worship of a false god:

"You shall not give any of your children to offer them to Molech, and so profane the name of your God: I am the Lord" (Leviticus 18:21).

If this had been the only occurrence of the name Molech I would have been curious, but probably not as much as when I read it again in Leviticus 20, where the protagonist, God, tells Moses he "will set my face against that man and will cut him off from among his people, because he has given one of his children to Molech" (Leviticus 20:3).  Since he was mentioned twice, and as I later found out, three more times in the Old Testament, I knew there had to be more to this character.

Molech's name has various forms and "was the name given to the national pagan god of the Ammonites, a people descended from Abraham's nephew Lot" (Blank).  The Ammonites were a "Semitic people living northeast of the Dead Sea in the area surrounding Rabbah who often battled with the Israelites for possession of the fertile Gilead" in what is now part of the Kingdom of Jordon (Holman Bible Dictionary ).

Some, like Otto Eissfeldt, believe that the word Molech described a certain type of sacrifice in which children are burned as offerings.  They attribute this to several different cultures, one of which where children were burned as offerings to Cronus of Carthage in North Africa. Nonetheless, there is a god named Molech in the same region at the time the Israelites would have been passing through, and it is more likely that deity that God is referring to because the phrase "whoring after" is used.  This word "whoring" is used many times in the Bible from Exodus (Old Testament) to Hosea (New Testament) and usually refers to the act of worshiping false gods.

Only one question remained.  Why is Molech sacrifice mentioned in the list of unlawful sexual relations in Leviticus 18?  The connection can be made due to the link to the fertility goddess Ashtoreth, who was the consort of Molech.  By the time Israel entered this region, religious Canaanites already had an established practice for worshiping Ashtoreth in which "male worshipers had anal sex with priests and priestesses of the goddess" as an offering (Who Was Molech or Moloch?).

In conclusion, Molech was the name of a pagan god in Canaan.  The practice of burning children as a sacrifice became known as Molech (or molk) sacrifice.  Canaanites and corrupted Israelites would have worshiped Ashtoreth, who represented the female principle of fertility, along with Molech, who represented the male principle of life and reproduction, by taking part in cultic sexual rituals (Who is Molech or Moloch?).

 

What'sThe Big Deal With Circumcision Anyway?

     Well, to start I have to tell you that I had originally determined to find out why the protagonist in the story seemingly sought Moses out on the way to Egypt to kill him (Exodus 4:24). Most, like Carey Scott, believe it had to do with the fact that Moses had not circumcised his son, removing him from a covenant between God and Abraham in Genesis; therefore, making him “unfit for the task that God had appointed for him” (Scott). I checked out the blogs that were already posted and saw someone else in the class had already touched on that subject. Unfortunate for me, but my thirst for that answer was quenched. So then I wondered what the big deal was with circumcision anyway. What had to have been going through the Abraham, or any other man's, mind when he found out that was the way you showed your allegiance to God? Why this way? Couldn't there have been something that didn't involve such a sensitive area., or subject, rather?

     So I wanted to know why a protagonist would request this of his people? Looking through the eyes of a physician one can see the health benefits of such a procedure. “Squamous-cell carcinoma (cancer of the penis) is almost unknown among males who have been circumcised,” and females who have sex with uncircumcised men are more prone to uterine and cervical cancer (Truth About Circumcision). Having to deal with these things, especially in a time without the advancements of medical technology we have today, usually makes it more difficult to procreate as God wanted them to. One could see this as a wisdom beyond the technology of the time, which you would expect from an all-knowing, all-powerful being such as God.

     Also of note was the fact that they were not the only ones to have performed this procedure or ritual, however one chooses to view it. Ancient Egyptians used it as a rite of passage from boyhood to manhood. Dating back to the 23rd Century B.C.E. the sun god Ra performs his own circumcision in the Egyptian Book of the Dead, and “a relief from the Sixth Dynasty tomb on Ankh-ma-Hor at Saqquara portrays the circumcision of two puberty-aged youths” (Larue).

 

     The link is not surprising considering how close they were to each other geographically and the apparent history of interaction according to stories like that of Joseph and his brothers in Genesis.

Who was Cain's wife, where did she come from, and were they related?

     One of the questions that always popped into my head after reading Genesis was, "Who did Cain marry?" After he murders Abel and God banishes him, "Cain went out from the Lord's presence and lived in the land of Nod, east of Eden.  Cain lay with his wife, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Enoch..." (Genesis 4:16-17).  Noting that this does not say he "found" his wife in the land of Nod, only that he "lay with" her there, it still vexed me for a while, If Adam and Eve were the first and only people on Earth then where did she come from?  Were there other people on Earth not related to Adam and Eve that the Bible does not mention?  There are way too many problems that scenario would cause to the Bible story, mostly in the idea of "in Adam's fall, we sinned all." If we are not all descended from Adam and Eve then the entire human race could not be condemned to death for his transgression and, therefore, would not need a savior...which would take away the overall message of the Bible.
     Okay, so Cain's wife had to have been of his own bloodline.  Besides, Genesis 5:4 does say that after Seth, which was the third son mentioned by name, that Adam lived 800 years "And he fathered sons and daughters."  One could look to the Book of Jubilees, which "purports to be a revelation given to Moses on Mt. Sinai by an angel of the Presence" for a more specific answer (Barry Smith, Introduction to the Book of Jubilees).  According to it, "Cain took Awan his sister to be his wife and she bare him Enoch" (iv 9).  So, why would this not have created deformed offspring, like you would see today if a close relative, especially a sister, bore a man's child?  Not to mention the Bible outlaws the union of such close relatives.  To address the latter issue first, according to Leviticus 18, God does not declare this wicked until the time of Moses.  As far as deformities are concerned, Adam and Eve were perfect beings made in the likeness of God and had no genetic deformities to pass down.  Only over several generations after the fall could genetic deformities have began to show. 
     Even without external sources, thoroughly analyzing the passages surrounding Cain and his wife helped me to understand what was going on.  As disgusting as it may seem to us today, he had to have married a sister, niece, or some other relative of his.  According to the story of creation in Genesis it would have been necessary to populate the earth, besides, what other choice would he have had?